NEW YORK, July 7, 2006 (PRIMEZONE) -- JetBlue Airways Corporation (Nasdaq:JBLU) reported today that its traffic in June increased 11.4 percent from June 2005, on a capacity increase of 20.8 percent.

Load factor for June 2006 was 82.1 percent, a decrease of 6.9 points from June 2005. JetBlue's preliminary completion factor was 99.8 percent and its on-time(1) performance was 71.1 percent. "We continue to experience revenue improvement as evidenced by June's preliminary passenger revenue per available seat mile increase of 16 percent year over year, driven by the positive changes made to our revenue management process. Pricing our inventory in order to achieve a higher yield at a reduced load factor is giving us the positive results we are aiming for."

(1) The U.S. Department of Transportation considers on-time arrivals to be those domestic flights arriving within 14 minutes of schedule.

In the six years since its launch, JetBlue Airways has focused on creating a new airline category -- an airline that offers value, service and style. Based out of New York City, the low-cost carrier currently serves 39 destinations with more than 440 flights daily. Onboard JetBlue, customers enjoy roomy leather seats and 36 channels of free DIRECTV(r) programming(a), the most live TV available on any airline. On flights longer than two hours, a selection of first-run movies and bonus features from FOX InFlight(tm) is also available. JetBlue offers customers generous brand name snacks and beverages, including freshly brewed Dunkin' Donuts coffee, and delicious wines selected by the airline's Low Fare Sommelier, Josh Wesson from Best Cellars. On overnight flights from the West, the airline now offers Shut-Eye Service, with a Shut-Eye Kit(tm) designed exclusively for JetBlue by Bliss Spa and other special amenities including a "good morning" hot towel service. With JetBlue, all seats are assigned, all travel is ticketless, all fares are one-way, and an overnight stay is never required. For information or reservations call 1-800-JETBLUE (1-800-538-2583) or visit www.jetblue.com.

(a) DIRECTV(r) service is not available on flights outside the continental United States; however, where applicable FOX InFlight is offered complimentary on these routes. FOX InFlight is a trademark of Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. JetBlue's in-flight entertainment is powered by LiveTV, a wholly owned subsidiary of JetBlue.

Quoting FLAIRPORT (Reply 1):good and bad...LF is down, but traffic is up...I think they need to slow down expansion, but I trust Neeleman

LF is down, however this was expected. Yields have improved with the increased fares. With airfares up the way they are, a 6.9 point decrease in LF is nothing to complain about...plus, the busy summer travel season is finally here. Profits for the second quarter should be announced later this month!

this is really quite amazing. B6 underperformed all of the big legacy airlines in domestic load factor for June even though B6 has consistently outperformed that same group for years. And everyone's yield is going up. If you underperform on load factor you have to substantially outperform on yields to keep up. I don't think I would be overly optimistic about these numbers.

Quoting JetBlueNYFL (Reply 2):LF is down, however this was expected. Yields have improved with the increased fares. With airfares up the way they are, a 6.9 point decrease in LF is nothing to complain about...plus, the busy summer travel season is finally here. Profits for the second quarter should be announced later this month

Quoting WorldTraveler (Reply 3):B6 underperformed all of the big legacy airlines in domestic load factor for June even though B6 has consistently outperformed that same group for years. And everyone's yield is going up. If you underperform on load factor you have to substantially outperform on yields to keep up. I don't think I would be overly optimistic about these numbers.

I think you're missing the big story here. We already know RASM is up 16%, in spite of LF being down 6.9%. That means yield is up a whopping 24.6%. I would call that "substantially outperforming on yields".

I just wondering if US's higher yields ruined the YoY comparison since they joined America West who had a lower RASM. It seems to me if this were the case, consolidated RASM would surely show the big gain. But CASM would rise as well because of the same reason. Combing lower cost HP with Higher cost US.

Do I make sense? Other airlines are showing high RASM gains are doing it without raising Costs.

yes, Artie it does make sense. US is an interesting combination of mixing moving costs and revenues. They are getting much of the revenue improvements from US east but the cost improvements from west - but they are still shrinking their network. Not sure this is entirely a great or sustainable story.

as for B6, the point is not that B6 is seeing increased yields because every coast carrier is thanks to Indy's demise and DL and B6's mutual recognition that they were killing each other. DL and US both have had domestic RASM improvements of better than 20% for the past several months so a 16% RASM improvement is underperforming their closest competitors. B6 still has too much capacity in its network and if they cannot keep load factor flat during the peak summer months, they will either be discounting heavily to fill seats in the fall or will need to be reallocating their capacity out of the markets which have had the most amount of capacity which has been maintained at previously low fares which are now unsustainable.